ENERGETICS AND THE HEART CHAKRA

“Louise Hay urges us to think of the heart as the center of joy and the seat of emotions in our lives. How well your life’s blood flows through your heart, arteries, and veins is linked to the degree which joy flows through your life. Cholesterol-blocked arteries symbolize a blocking of the flow of joy, or a suppression of emotion. Heart attacks, Hay says, happens when all the joy has been squeezed out of your heart………..moreover, we know that unresolved and unexpressed anger, sadness, and fear actually cause vasoconstriction, a tightening of the blood vessels connected to the heart. When you feel anger or fear, these blood vessels contrict in response to an outpouring of chemicals from the sympathetic nervous system……Joy and love stimulate the parasympatheic nervous system, which opens the blood vessels and creates more blood to flow to your heart…….Feeling and expressing all emotions, in a balanced way, is essential to health in the fourth emotional center [4th chakra].”Mona Lisa Schulz

Physically, the Heart Chakra is the heart, circulatory system, lungs, respiriatory system, immune system and the arms and hands. This is the centre through which we love and there are many different kinds of love….selfish, demanding, possessive, contricting, tender and caring. When this chakra is balanced, we experience a ‘spiritual love’ in human beings and discover a greater sensitiviy and not so great a concern for material objects.

When this chakra is out of balance, it can lead to heart attacks, stomach ulcers, emotional rollercoasters, fear, bitterness and resentment.

There are six meridians in the arms and hands which we will go into great detail soon. First we need to get to the heart of matter.

GETTING TO THE HEART OF THE MATTER

Suppressed Emotions And Attitudes

It has been said that suppressed emotions are the major cause of dis-ease in our society. Regrets, sorrow, guilt, shame, tear down the cells of he body while thoughts of hate generate a deadly poison. Resentment and anger have been known to create sickness and sorrow. Also, parents who dominate and control their children or fear for them…….their thoughts and anxieties are transferred to the child. The child acts out the parents feelings, producing behavioral and health problems for them both. In fact, parents can smother their children so much, the child’s soul is driven out of his/her body. These children lose their effectiveness to see the ‘Truth’ and their ‘diseased thought patterns’, ‘hardened attitudes’ begin building up as plague in their arteries.

In fact, Low blood pressure could be the result of feeling ineffectual or trapped. It portrays a feeling of weakness in certain life situations and unable to change one’s situation.

Psychologists and researchers have discovered that people who are able to express ‘love’ are healthier, tend to sick less and if they do, regain their health more quickly. Also they age more slowly, have better color, great skin, good posture and a healthy circulation. It is believed that thinking back to a ‘love’ moment creates interesting chemical changes in the body that balances the life flow in the body and brings peace to body and mind.

Of course let’s not forget processed foods, fatty acids, fast foods and years of dietary abuse. If you just tuned in, check out the archives for September and October in this blog for more information.

HARD-DRIVEN, HOT-HEADED TYPE A PERSONALITIES

When quoting Mona Lisa Scultz in this section, I purposely left out her comment on Type A personalities so we could discuss this at greater length later. She said “a vast number of heart attack victims are so-called type A personalities, often driven men whose passion derives exclusively from money, power, and position and who aren’t really much of a joy to have around.” And what of the women? Statistics are showing more and more women are suffering heart attacks too.

The heart, the mighty pump never stops working as long as you are living. But an overload of stress, anxiety and tension have been proven to erode vital blood vessels, the heart muscle itself and the physical body. People who are angry, competitive and always racing the clock can’t seem to relax even when the body is on automatic pilot or sleeping. Researchers and scientists named this type of behavior “Type A”, and also noted it was a common characteristic type for heart attack victms.

Type A people when in a ‘destructive mode’ are more likely to get angered and stressed over little frustrations, e.g., traffic jams, ticket and shopping lines, and little irritants that make their blood ‘boil’ regularly which acts upon the victim they least intend – themselves! The heart has to work harder, the blood pressure goes up and the liver, sensing a possilibity of injury, increases its cholesterol output. Put this all together and we get what is called Hypertension….the most probable cause of Heart Attacks.

But what is the major contributor to all this? I’m sure we could all say we have behaved from the extremes of Type A to the more laid back Type B behavior. Are Type A’s so gongho they don’t hear or ignore signals from their body? Most of us have pushed our bodies and minds to the max, which we know leads to physical tension, mental restlessness and strain. What we did was deplete our bodies energy, which also suffered wear and tear. Type B’s would respond to the body’s call but what of Type A? Would they continue to neglect the warning signs sent to the mind via the nervous system because their too busy negotiating deals, making money, working 24/7?

When we feel tired or fatiqued, it is a warning signal from the body to slow down and rest. But neglecting these messages the body will intensify these warnings with a headach, backache, eyestrain or irritability. If we still ignore the warnings or try to suppress them with medication, the body will continue to deteriorate. The signals will become so strong, they will force us to see medical help…..by then the body is in need of urgent attention.

High blood pressure can develop into angina, a narrowing of the arteries which happens when we are under great mental and physical stress. Mental and physical stress reduces our ability to give as well as to receive…..Type A’s have a strong need or are preoccupied with staying in control. They want to do everything themselves. This depletes their inner resources which is not continuously filled from learning or receiving from others. or receiving intuitive insights.

With high blood pressure, one has an exaggerated sense of self-importance, which leads a person to believe that he or she will have to do everything on their own. they are pushed from a position of fear, without trusting in the universe to support them.

When we withdraw or repress our feelings Artheriosclerosis, a thickening or hardening of the arteries can develop. Energetically it means we are out of balance, especially of giving and receiving.

ARTERIOSCLEROSIS, by Dep Shapiro

“In bodymind language, the arteries and veins represent the distribution and expression of love throughout your being. A restriction of these vessels implies a restriction in your ability to express yourself, perhaps a withdrawal or repression of feeling, and in particular a narrowing of your emotinal perspectives.* Are you limiting or denying yourself love or support?

* Is this because you are trying to do much and not recognizing your own needs, not seeing where you need to ask for help? …………*Are you holding yourself back from involvement”

Dr. Spielberger developed an anger test that measures our general tendency to get angry and the intensity of anger at a given moment. High scores have been related to Hypertension which is one the major contributors to heart attacks. Apparently the test compares your anger level to that of the average man or woman. But what is average?

If you do want to try the test, and would like to score yourself, here’s where your answers place you with the ‘average ranks’. If you are a man and scored 17, or a woman who scored 18, than you are considered in the ‘average’ category. If you scored below 13, then others don’t tend to provoke a response from you. But if you scored 23 or higher, you are highly stress prone and considered in the ranks of the hotheads. It means you have a tendency to feel anger and rage when frustrated which is considered a potentially lethal to your health.

Emotional stress not only affects the heart but also the lungs which are an extension of the heart. In fact the movment of the heart and lungs affect all the organs of the body through the sympathetic nervous system, which is part of the autonomic nervous system. (discussed in the September 21st issue of this blog)

Here’s a snip

“Blood pressure is controlled by the autonomic (involuntary) nervous system which works similar to a plane on ‘autopilot’. It ensures that your organs, such as your lungs or heart work without you thinking about it. Your awareness of this system is triggered when your body is threatened or needs (cries out) for your undivided attention. It is your nerves that carry these messages to the Thalamus also known as the ‘brains inner room’ . The Thalamus relays these nerve impulses to the cerebrum (responsible for our ability to speak, read and write) and helps you to realize ohh I’m in pain! Other areas of the brain tell you exactly where the hurt is coming from. The hypothalamus controls the movement of the heart, gut and bladder; makes us feel hungry, thirsty; feel angry or aggressive; and stops us from falling alseep during the day.”

Before looking at the heart chakra, let’s look at what happens when stress, anger, anxiety, etc. build up in our system…..a mixture of hormones are released by our adrenal glands (fight/flight response) which flows through the bloodstream and/or directly through the nerves. When this happens it suppresses our immune system. When the immune system is suppressed, it can’t work efficiently to protect the body which subsequently lowers our resistance to disease.

“We don’t yet understand all the ways in which brain chemicals are related to emotions and thoughts, but the salient point is that our state of mind has an immediate and direct effect on our state of body. We can change the body by dealing with how we feel. If we ignore our despair, the body receives a “die” message. If we deal with our pain and seek help, then the message is “Living is difficult but desirable”, and the immune systems works to keep us alive.” Bernie S. Siegel, M.D.

THE HEART CHAKRA

“Since the heart chakra is the middle point in a system of seven centers, balance is an essential principle at this level of integration. This implies both the internal balance between various aspects of ourselves (mind and body, persona and shadow, male and female), as well as balance between ourselves and the world around us (work and play, giving and receiving, socializing and being alone). Find this equilibrium supports the basic issues of love and relationship, for without balance with ourselves it is difficult, if not impossible to achieve healthy and long lasting love relationships…………..

The most common block in the heart chakra is the absence of self-love. How can we have intimacy with others if we are distanced from our own self? How can we reach out to others when we are drowning in shame and criticism? How can we maitain balance between ourselves and others if we have no blance within. How can we treat another with respect if we treat our selves abusively.” Anodea Judith, Eastern Body Western Mind

When the heart or 4th chakra is open, all the other chakras come into alignment with it. It is the “bridge” that connects the lower and upper chakras…and, the central powerhouse of the human energy system. The three lower chakras govern self-consciousness, survival and will. These chakras work together, and when balanced, create a receptacle for spiritual, universal messages as well as answers which are channeled through the physical body. So, the heart chakra connects our physical awareness to the spiritual……its sense is Touch. When we are born, we touch the earth and the earth touches us, physically, emotionally and symbolically. And, it is through touch we form relationships and create our existence. We touch each other physically but we are also touched by each other emotionally.

“On a mental level, the heart chakra functions on an emotional basis, our feelings and how we express them towards ourselves and to others. How we think gets turned into how we behave with our feelings on this level. When someone has acted badly towards us, the mind processes these actions and then sends these waves of information to our heart centre, who then in turns, sends them out as feelings of anger, fear or betrayal. When someone tells us that we are beautiful, our mind does the same. It sends these messages to the mind and the brain sends them to our heart centre and we experience feelings of love, joy and happiness, in return we emanate this energy out into our aura toward others. When we smile and radiate love outwards the whole world smiles back at us. It is the same when we are in a negative mood. The same energy comes outwards and lashes onto those around us. We have to learn just how powerful our feelings are, not only to ourselves, but to everyone we encounter. ” Terrific site on the chakras http://www.pharrah13.com/Chakra.html

Emotional neglect can also cause a person to become bitter, insensitive and perhaps even cruel. Abusive emotional behaviour is acted out not only with other people…..emotional neglect can lead to the abuse of animals, for instance, or a deep insensitivity to the needs of other forms of life including, the earth itself.

Without a strong foundation of Love, fear, anger, resentment and regret can develop in its place. All these as well as loneliness, attachment, possessiveness, a broken heart etc., can all lead to heart problems.

The heart is a pump! It freely circulates the blood through our veins. and does not like anyting restricting or limiting its function. This is why this chakra above all the others represents the saying, ‘Let go and let God’. The heart needs a sense of freedom or it will ‘act up’ trying to release itself from the grasp of its captor(s).

I don’t think there is anyone who hasn’t had an emotional history of abandonment and betrayal. Overtime we try or succeed in letting some of these go. The ones that aren’t resolved, (grief. anger, etc.) affect our cholesterol levels, which not only begins to rise but also becomes inflamed and literally turns to stone. Your veins become hardened with calcium.

“When the heart is open and we feel the love of the universe percolating through our being, we feel the greatest security and self confidence. We learn to love without any attachment or feelings of possessiveness. When we truly realize who and what we are, fears and doubts vanish.” Alex Jones